Greenville’s Luke Gilmore battles with Lowell’s Jake Stehley during the 160-pound O-K White Conference tournament final. Gilmore won and took home his fourth straight conference title.

GREENVILLE — Every year the O-K White Conference wrestling tournament comes down to the Greenville Yellow Jackets and the Lowell Red Arrows.

This year wasn’t any different.

The Red Arrows took home eight conference titles while the Yellow Jackets placed four wrestlers at the top. In the end, the Red Arrows won with 282.5 points to the Yellow Jackets’ 240 points.

Northview was third with 205 and followed by East Grand Rapids with 101.5, GR Christian 56 and GR Creston with 45.

Greenville had 10 wrestlers in the finals and the Red Arrows 13 in the finals. All 13 of Greenville’s wrestlers placed in the top three while the Red Arrows had 13 wrestlers in the top two and one in fourth place.

“I was happy with their performance. All the kids placed out of our 13 wrestlers,” Greenville coach Paul Johnson said. “Lowell has a class program and this year they are really solid.”

Schmidt, who placed second a year ago, defeated Lowell’s Derek Krajewski by technical fall 16-0.

“It feels pretty good after taking second last year,” Schmidt said. “I was ready to win and take first. I just tried to take him down, work on top and keep moving.”

Ward, a sophomore, won his second straight conference title. He defeated Lowell’s Kalvin Meyer with a 7-5 decison. Ward trailed the match 5-1.

“It felt really good, especially since I was down early,” Ward said. “It was sweet to come back. It was tiring, but still cool.”

Reamer won his first conference title with a tight win over Northview’s Robert Brown by a 4-3 decision.

“I’m really happy for Kyle Reamer. He was seeded first in a real tight weight class,” Johnson said. “All the kids would agree with me, he is just a hard worker, a blue collar wrestler and for him to win I’m just thrilled to death.”

Gilmore won his fourth conference title with a 5-2 decision over Lowell’s Jake Stehley. Gilmore also won conference titles at 103, 119 and 130.

“I wrestled him earlier this year and won,” Gilmore said. “He is ranked one below me and was a good opponent.”

Gilmore is the first four-time conference champion for coach Johnson.

“He is the first four-time conference champ I’ve had,” Johnson said. “In the last 21 years that is the only four-time champ. Your talking about pretty select company with Jordan Thomas, Tyler Keselring and Adam Hopkins. All multiple state champs and Luke was the first to do that.”

Jordan Thomas did not participate due to injury. He will wrestle at districts on Wednesday.

The Yellow Jackets host and will face the winner of Cedar Springs and Sparta in the district final.

“They (Sparta) will have to work to get by Cedar Springs. I think they will beat Cedar,” Johnson said. “We are prepping more for Sparta. it will be a real close match and could be seven matches apiece.”

The Lowell Red Arrows took the first step toward winning an O-K White Conference wrestling title in 2012. The Red Arrows avenged last season’s loss by defeating the host Greenville Yellow Jackets 45-18 in a battle of top rated teams. According to michigangrappler.com the Red Arrows are rated No. 2 in Division 2 while the Yellow Jackets are No. 4 in Division 2.

The Greenville Yellow Jackets wrestling team saved its best for last on Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets — down by six points — won 11 of 12 finals matches to pull ahead of DeWitt and capture the Jackson Northwest Tournament on Saturday.